


the ground effect

by LittleQueenTrashMouth



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Flirting through metaphors about seabird aerodynamics, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26977927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleQueenTrashMouth/pseuds/LittleQueenTrashMouth
Summary: Teo’s been off at Ba Sing Se university getting a degree in engineering, and hasn’t seen the Avatar in almost 5 years. He is absolutely not prepared for Aang to have become the hottest man he has ever seen in his life.
Relationships: Aang/Teo (Avatar)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 79





	the ground effect

Teo was waiting for the Avatar.

Everyone at the Northern Air Temple was waiting for the Avatar, but Teo had gone the longest without actually seeing him. Since the end of the war, Aang had made a habit of stopping at each air temple at least once a year, but he spent the most amount of time at the Northern Air Temple. Teo had been around for the first few visits, but he had been admitted to Ba Sing Se university at fifteen, a great privilege for someone of his age and background. Though he would periodically visit his family at the Northern Air Temple, his trips never coincided with Aang’s. After four years of education, Teo had proudly returned to the temple, wielding a degree in engineering. 

It had been almost a year since he had graduated when the Avatar’s flying lemur swooped into the temple, singling out his father. Momo had a note tied to his leg from Aang, saying that he would be at the temple in a few days. Aang didn’t used to give notice of his arrival, but Teo assumed that his father’s chaotic nature meant that Aang’s visits could be a bit more productive and focused on the restoration of the air temple if the Mechanist had a little time to prepare for him.

They knew the day, but not the time, which meant that everyone that didn’t have time-sensitive work was loitering on the main flight deck. Teo was with some of his friends, who were taking the time to gossip about the incoming guest. 

“I almost beat him in a glider race last time,” Pang bragged, puffing out his thin chest. “I’ve been practicing, I bet I can beat him this time.”

“You are so full of it,” Ika rolled her eyes. “I saw that race, you were behind him by like half a mile.” 

“Shut up, I was right behind him!”

“You were not! You know we can see you when you fly, right?”

Teo shook his head as the argument turned to a debate on Pang’s ability to measure distance in the sky. Another of their friends, Fen, was sprawled on the ground next to Teo, and was similarly disinterested in the squabble. “How long has it been since you’ve seen the Avatar, Teo?”

Teo pretended to think about it. “Almost five years.”

Fen whistled. “That’s crazy. Are you done with that glider you’ve been designing for the past decade?” 

Teo reached an arm down and swatted at Fen’s head. “It hasn’t been that long. It just seems like it because I couldn’t actually build it while I was in school, so I had to make do with blueprints.”

“Uh huh.” Fen gave him a knowing look, waggling his eyebrows. “No other reason that you’ve been obsessively working on a new glider for the Avatar for years?”

“I don’t know what you’re implying,” Teo replied haughtily. “Aang’s just a friend.” 

“Riiiiiight.”

Any further discussions about Teo’s motivations were disrupted by a cry that quickly swept through the crowd. Dozens of hands pointed straight up, following the distinctive shape of the Avatar’s bison. Teo looked up as well, shielding his eyes against the sun, unable to see much more than a dark silhouette. Appa finally landed and let out an exhausted grumble, and the lone figure perched on his head jumped out, gliding effortlessly down to the ground. The figure strode over to the small crowd to reveal the most beautiful man that Teo had ever seen.

Teo was not aware that his jaw had dropped or that his eyes were bugging out of his head as he took in the full view of the Avatar. Were it not for his airbending tattoos and the familiar warm gray eyes, Teo would not have recognized his friend at all. Aang was tall and lean, and moved with the easy yet powerful grace of a dancer. His Air Nomad robes were draped over only one shoulder, revealing most of his muscular chest and arms. Teo could only watch, dumbfounded, as Aang easily greeted everyone in the group, hugging them and calling everyone by name. Before he was fully aware that this was, in fact, happening, Aang turned that radiant smile on him.

“Teo, it’s so good to see you!” he exclaimed, and then he was leaning down and hugging Teo to his chest, and Teo was surrounded by the scent of pine trees and honey, and Aang’s cheek was pressed against his own. The airbender pulled back from the hug, though he still had his hands resting on Teo’s biceps. Fen, who had scrambled to his feet, was giving him one of his obnoxious, I-told-you-so looks, but Teo didn’t have it in him to care right now. He was suddenly painfully aware of how scruffy he looked; he had been wearing his work clothes for a few days now, and they were covered in oil and grime. His hair was long and unkempt, and had been swiftly captured in a messy bun at the crown of his head, held back by the safety goggles perched on his forehead. By contrast, Aang looked absolutely perfect. His skin was glowing with the healthy tan of someone who spent a lot of time outdoors, and his robes were spotless. 

“Hey, Aang,” Teo belatedly responded, blushing at how high-pitched and shy his voice sounded. “It’s been a while.” That was the understatement of the century, since the last time Teo had seen Aang, the Avatar had been an awkward 14-year-old with gangly limbs. And now…

“It sure has!” Aang laughed, finally releasing Teo so he could greet the rest of his friends. Teo had originally scoffed at how they had groomed and fretted about Aang’s arrival, but he fully understood now. Teo was so fascinated by the way that Aang’s mouth moved as he spoke, that it took him a minute to realize that 1) Aang was talking to Fen about him, and 2) they had asked him a question and were waiting for him to respond.

“Yeah,” he said stupidly, no idea what they had been talking about. Aang’s nose wrinkled rather adorably as he chuckled, and Fen was still giving him that smug _look_.

“Are you feeling alright?” Aang asked, concerned.

“I’m fine, sorry, I didn’t catch that. What were you saying?” 

“Fen was saying that you’ve been working on a new glider for me, and I was asking if I could see it,” Aang answered, an amused lilt to his voice. 

“Oh!” Now _that_ was something that Teo could talk about endlessly. “Yes, of course, I can take you down to my workshop now, if you like.” He had a sudden, petty thought. “Maybe Fen can help unload Appa and get him settled in the stables?” he suggested sweetly, ignoring the daggers that Fen was glaring at him behind Aang’s back. He smoothed out his face by the time Aang turned back to look at him and gave a mock salute.

“On it! C’mon guys, if we work together it’ll go by faster,” Fen grabbed Ika and Pang by their wrists, dragging them over to the sky bison and ignoring their protests.Teo glanced up at Aang and blushed again when he realized that Aang was still staring at him. Having his undivided attention was intense, and he had to look away. “This way,” he said brusquely, turning his wheelchair to lead them down the proper hallway to his workshop. 

Any potentially awkward silence was quickly filled by Aang’s chatter. “I’m so glad you’re actually here! Tell me everything about university. Did you have a good time? I mean, I’m sure it wasn’t all fun, but I don’t know. I haven’t really ever been in school.”

It took a second for Teo to parse out that there was a question in all of that. “University was great! It was cool to learn from a bunch of different people. I’d been so used to just being taught by my dad, and most of his work is the practical applications of engineering. So I finally got to learn, like, calculus and basic physics.” They approached a juncture in the hallway and Teo instinctively reached out to touch Aang’s wrist to let him know to stop and turn. He scolded himself for being so twitchy, and forced himself not to yank his hand away as Aang slowed down and waited for him to rotate his chair. 

They fell into an easy conversational rhythm as they walked, and Teo could start to relax and remind himself that Aang was, first and foremost, a friend. The topic turned to Aang’s other friends, many of whom Teo hadn’t seen since the war ended. Zuko was ruling the Fire Nation, Sokka was training to become the next Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe with his father, and Toph had been working with Haru to unite and train the earthbenders that had been scattered across the world during the war.

“And what about Katara?” Teo asked carefully, wondering why Aang would neglect mentioning his girlfriend that he was usually gushing about.

Aang hesitated. “Oh, we broke up a few years ago.” Teo resolutely ignored the swooping butterflies in his gut. “We’re still friends though!” he added hastily. “She’s helping Sokka and their dad rebuild the Southern Water Tribe, and training the new southern waterbenders.” 

By this point they had reached the door to Teo’s lab. With a well-practiced motion, Teo got his chair alongside the wall and hit a large button with his elbow, causing the door to slowly creak open. He couldn’t help but grin smugly at Aang’s astonished expression. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“Very cool!” Aang agreed, stepping into the lab. Teo very casually noticed that he had to duck his head to get through the doorway. Teo had made some effort to tidy up, but it didn’t really matter. Aang’s attention was immediately drawn to the staff that was laid out across his work table. In anticipation of Aang’s arrival, Teo had gathered all the parts of the glider together, displaying the hand and foot holds as they would look when the glider was fully extended. The sail of the glider was also spread out, a bright orange that matched Aang’s robes. The airbender circled the table in awe, one hand stretched out to brush against the small blue swirls that symbolized the Air Nomads that Teo had painted on one corner of the sail.

“Teo, it’s amazing,” Aang whispered, unable to take his eyes off the glider. Teo’s heart swelled with pride and other unnamed emotions as Aang continued running his long, elegant fingers over the frame of the glider. 

“I tried to make it look more like your original glider, based on what I remembered and some of the old mosaics around the temple,” Teo began to explain. “The wooden, rectangular staff was tricky, I was trying to find a wood that would be both light and strong, and none of the trees in the Earth Kingdom have anything like that. Finally we figured out that the redwoods along the coast are perfect, although finding branches the right length that were straight enough was a _nightmare_. Figuring out how the glider is supposed to fold back into the staff was fascinating though, your airbending moves it in a completely different way than I would have intuitively thought...” Teo babbled on like that for an embarrassing amount of time before he noticed that Aang had taken a seat and had his chin propped up on his hand, staring at him in bemusement. “Sorry, I’m boring you.”

“No you’re not,” Aang replied immediately. “I like hearing you talk about this stuff.” With that, Teo melted, and he had no choice but to finally admit that he had a giant, war-ballon-sized crush on the Avatar.

Unaware of Teo’s new insight, Aang reached out to pick up the staff, but faltered when he noticed that none of the pieces were connected to each other. 

“I wanted to wait until you got here so I could make sure that the measurements were accurate for you,” Teo said hurriedly, desperate to sound like a normal person. “And it’s a good thing too, you’re taller than I thought you would be.” 

Aang’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Oh? How tall did you think I was going to be?” he teased.

Teo swallowed, his mouth suddenly full of sand. “I wasn’t sure, you seemed about four feet tall when I saw you last.”

Aang chuckled and slid out of his chair, standing next to Teo so that he had to crane his neck up to look at him. “I’m six foot three.”

“Well,” Teo cleared his throat, wheeling himself back a foot so that he could breathe. “We’ll see about that. I’ll need some more exact measurements.” He made his way over to a drawer and fished out a measuring tape. “Put the end of that by your feet, then hold it straight up your body to the top of your head,” he instructed, tossing the tape to Aang. Aang caught the tape easily and complied, a mysterious smile still shimmering in the corners of his mouth. 

“188 centimeters,” he read out. Teo grabbed a notebook and scribbled the number down. “How tall is that?”

Teo did a quick calculation in his head. “Six foot two inches,” he answered, snickering at Aang’s pout. “Don’t get mad at me, the numbers don’t lie. Now hold the end of it against your shoulder and measure down to the end of your arm.” They proceeded in this manner for a while, Teo giving out directions that Aang followed without too much complaining. 

“Perfect! Give me about an hour and I should have the glider fully assembled.” Teo put down his notebook and stretched his arms out, working out the stiffness in his shoulders. Though Aang wouldn’t have seen it, Teo had been hunched over this glider for the better part of a year, and he was relieved to be almost done with it. 

To Teo’s surprise, Aang did not take the cue to leave, and instead began poking around the rest of the workshop. Teo would have thought that Aang would have grown bored of being locked away with him, and would be eager to explore the rest of the temple and hang out with some of his other friends. 

“I can come find you when I’m done,” Teo prodded, trying to give Aang another out.

“But if I wait here, you won’t have to find me,” Aang countered cheerfully. Teo opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again. If Aang wanted to leave he could. Maybe he was just really interested in how the glider was put together.

Teo’s one hour estimate ended up stretching to almost three hours. Aang was an exceptionally distracting labmate. When he wasn’t touching absolutely everything in the shop (including, somehow, lighting the fire that worked his soldering iron), he was hovering over Teo’s shoulder, watching him work. It wasn’t Aang’s fault that Teo shivered and his brain shut down every time he felt the Avatar’s breath on his neck, but it wasn’t making things any easier. 

“Done!” he finally announced, flopping back in his chair with a sigh of relief. Aang clapped his hands together and cheered, bringing back the blush that was now a constant feature of Teo’s face. He snatched up the staff and twirled it in the air, tapping it on the ground to make the wings pop out. Teo waited nervously while Aang ran his hands over every inch of it, lingering over the carefully crafted joints that allowed the sail to neatly fold back into the staff.

“It’s perfect,” Aang sounded so sincere and grateful that Teo thought he could easily make a hundred gliders if he asked him too. “It feels just like my old glider.” Teo looked down at his hands folded in his lap. He was excruciatingly aware of what that meant, to have his work compared to that of the extinct Air Nomads. He thought that Aang had given him the highest honor all those years ago when he had told Teo that he had the spirit of an airbender. This was better.

“I’m glad you like it.” The words rang hollow to Teo, but he didn’t know what else to say. How to explain the guilt that plagued him for years, about his family ripping apart the ancient air temple, defiling it with weapons that aided the enemy. One glider could never make up for that.

A tattooed hand worked its way between the ones that Teo was fidgeting together, briefly intertwining their fingers and squeezing once before pulling away. “Thank you. Do you want to go flying now?” Teo glanced up, startled by the sudden mood change, but Aang was just smiling beguilingly at him. It was so unfair, Teo thought sourly. There couldn’t be anyone on this planet that would have been able to tell Aang no.

“Okay.”

* * *

It didn’t take long to set up Teo’s gliding rig on his chair. Everyone else had gone back to work, because the flight deck was empty. Aang’s pet lemur, Momo, was curled up asleep on the bison, but he perked up and flew over to land on Aang’s shoulder, chittering excitedly. 

“Hey buddy! Are you coming flying with us?” Aang giggled, using the crook of his finger to scratch the lemur behind one enormous ear. Momo purred and appeared to nod, before taking off into the sky. The two boys laughed in unison, and Teo fearlessly wheeled himself to the edge of the deck, his arms a blur as he worked to gain enough speed to soar. There was that familiar gut-wrenching drop when he rolled into empty air, and then he was flying.

Flying with Aang was unlike anything else in the world. The very air seemed to welcome Aang, he fit into the currents and breezes like he was a part of them, rather than an earthly intrusion. He moved like a bird, more at home in the sky than he ever appeared on the ground. Teo could only try his best to keep up with him. Rather than let Teo longingly watch him, Aang goaded him into a competition, trying out one flashy trick after another to try to stump him. Teo grinned as they dove and weaved around each other, the air bright with their unrestrained laughter. Momo glittered between them, soaring and lunging as he tried to figure out their game so he could participate.

All too soon, the sun began to set, and Teo steered them back to the flight deck. His landings had gotten smoother with time, though he still had to jerk on the handbrake to stop himself before he rolled right off the mountain. Aang landed next to him, outright gleaming in the rosy glow of the sunset. 

“Fantastic! Teo, it’s better than I ever could have imagined!” Overcome with joy, Aang grabbed the handles of Teo’s chair and swung him around in a circle, before falling to his knees facing him. The setting sun cast the airbender in a stunning golden light, and Teo dizzily wondered how someone so perfect could possibly exist. “Thank you for flying with me,” Aang continued, oblivious to Teo’s distress. “I’ve missed this.”

Teo chuckled self-consciously. “Don’t you fly with the others when you visit?”

“Yeah, but none of them fly like you do.” Aang grinned in that easy, effortless way of his, as though he hadn’t just said the most romantic thing that Teo could possibly imagine. “I’m starving, do you think dinner’s ready yet?” He straightened up and looked towards the temple, and Teo became aware of his own growling stomach.

“I know how to sneak into the kitchen if it isn’t.”

Aang barked a laugh and clapped Teo on the back. “Perfect, let’s go!”

* * *

The next day, the only place Aang wanted to go was the ocean. Teo was getting better and better at ignoring the tremor in his heartbeat whenever Aang talked to him, which meant that he was able to argue against the venture for a surprisingly long time. However much the gliders had advanced in the last few years, it was still risky for non-airbenders to take them away from the air temple, where they were subject to more variable winds than the slow, sinuous thermals they were used to. Teo couldn’t take his wheelchair on the beach or risk getting every nook and cranny of it full of sand, and he insisted that Aang would get bored if he had to sit with Teo on the cliffs the whole time. Aang had been more insistent, though, claiming that there was a spot that would be accessible, and they would fly on Appa because it was too far to glide anyway, and he hadn’t been in years and really _really_ wanted to show it to Teo. That last point had been the most convincing, and Teo reluctantly agreed.

“See, I told you!” Aang announced triumphantly, sweeping one arm out across the view. Teo had to admit, it was a breath-taking sight. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been to the ocean. The sea this far north wasn’t like the placid, turquoise waters near the equator, with long stretches of white sand beaches. The ocean was cold and gray, with enormous waves that thudded against the sea cliffs and stirred up white foam and algae. The spot that Aang had found was a small cove, where a gradually sloping rock ledge extended out to the water. It would be easy enough for Teo to wheel his chair down there and still enjoy the view.

“Okay, okay, you were right.” he grinned, excited for the first time that day. As they made their way out to the ledge, Aang explained how him and some of the other young monks had found this spot when he had come to the Northern Air Temple for sky bison polo over a hundred years ago. Aang’s tone was wistful, but in a way that Teo felt that addressing the inherent sadness of speaking of the Air Nomads would not be welcome. They were still happy memories, for Aang, and Teo was thankful that he would want to share them. 

Though the rock ledge was smoothed by centuries of wave erosion, it was still gritty enough for Teo’s wheelchair to gain traction as they made their way out to the ocean. The surface of the ledge was dotted with small round pools that they had to skirt around, but glancing into those pools revealed a hidden wonderland of seaweed, snails, anemones, and fish. Aang began to hop around to the different pools, fearlessly poking his fingers into the cold water. Teo was content enough to stop in one spot and just appreciate it all. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, savoring the brisk, salty seabreeze and the sound of the crashing waves. After a few minutes, he lowered himself out of his chair onto the rock so he could look closer into one of the pools. He spent a lot of his time watching Aang too, a smile threatening to spill across his lips as the airbender whooped and hollered, clearly revived by the clean open air. 

Finally, Aang seemed to run out of steam and came back over to Teo, his cheeks flushed and his eyes shining. They sat and looked at the ocean together in companionable silence. As usual, Aang was the first to break that silence.

“Look!” he announced, pointing out to the open sea. Teo followed his finger and saw a flock of pelican-osprey flying in a V-formation, their enormous wings open and stationary as they glided less than a foot above the surface of the ocean. The birds flew in a serpentine fashion, going up and down with the rolling waves to skim across the water. “That’s amazing, that they can go so fast and so close to the water without flapping their wings.”

“It’s the ground effect,” Teo explained before he could stop himself. 

“What’s that?” Aang asked. Teo glanced at him to see if he was asking out of obligation, but Aang looked genuinely curious. 

“It has to do with aerodynamics, and the way that the air currents move around the bird,” Teo began, mentally trying to rapidly break down the complex technical definition into one that Aang would be able to understand. “When they fly so close to the surface, it reduces drag on their wings, and makes a little cushion of air between them and the water. They can essentially float on that cushion and save energy.” 

“Amazing,” Aang was incredulously shaking his head, his eyes glued to the solemn squadron of birds. “It only works when they’re that close?” 

“Yep. They have to be within a wingspan of the surface, and the closer they are the more effective it is.”

“How do they know to do that?” Aang asked, awed. Teo froze, stunned by the surprisingly thoughtful question. 

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “Instinct, probably.” 

“It’s risky though. If they miscalculate, they’ll fall in the water and hurt themselves.” Teo was reminded that Aang was no idiot, that he had saved the world and had thousands of past lives’ wisdom locked away in his head. 

“True.” Teo shrugged. “I guess they just know to trust the air.” 

Aang hummed appreciatively, and Teo thought that if there was anyone in the world who understood what it was like to trust the air with your life, it was the monk sitting next to him. They lapsed into silence again.

“Thank you,” Teo said suddenly. “For bringing me out here. It’s amazing.” 

Aang smiled, bright as the sun. “I’m glad I could convince you to come. It’s a great spot. Peaceful.” His voice wavered, and his eyes flickered away from Teo. “Romantic.”

Teo’s stomach was doing some circus-worthy acrobatics. “Yeah,” he said, sounding high-pitched and artificial to his own ears. “I bet if you brought a girl out here, she’d love it.“ If he kept his gaze straight ahead, out towards the ocean, he surely would manage not to give anything away.

“What about a boy?” Teo’s whole body jolted and he spun his head towards Aang, gasping when he saw that the airbender was no longer a few feet away, staring out to sea. Aang was leaning in towards him, one hand resting on the ground behind Teo’s back, the other one only a hair’s breadth from his own hand. Aang was so close that Teo could count his eyelashes, that he could see the faint sprinkle of freckles across the other boy’s nose. “What about a very smart boy that loves to fly and spends a lot of time thinking about how tall I’ll be?” 

Teo swallowed, unable to move, unable to _breathe_. Their mouths were inches apart, Teo could feel Aang’s breath against his lips. His overwhelmed brain could only think to say, “I mean, it wasn’t that much time, just however long it took to design the glider, I’m not—” He was blissfully interrupted by Aang gently pressing his lips against his, his eyes fluttering shut.

It was by no means Teo’s first kiss, but it was without a doubt his best kiss. Aang tasted just like the air a thousand feet above the ground: crisp and cool and clean and wild. As Aang deepened the kiss, Teo brought one hand up to cup the other boy’s jaw, bringing them even closer together. 

Aang pulled back first, chuckling softly as Teo unconsciously went with him, chasing that lost contact. The cool ocean air felt nice against Teo’s flushed face. “You’re very cute, did you know that?” Aang murmured, brushing his thumb across Teo’s lower lip.

“You’re beautiful.” Teo didn’t really mean to say that, but it was the truth and he didn’t regret it. Aang laughed and bent down to kiss him again. Teo’s hands grasped the back of Aang’s neck, holding him tight so he couldn’t pull the same trick again. One of Aang’s hands was resting on Teo’s waist, his fingers curling into the fabric of his jacket.

Teo ran out of breath and had to break the kiss this time. Aang glanced up at the sun and sighed. “We should be heading back. Everyone at the temple is going to think I’ve run off with you.”

 _Let them,_ Teo thought, but he maneuvered himself back into his chair so they could get back to Appa. Once they were in the air, Aang dropped into the saddle with Teo, sitting so close to him that they were pressed together, shoulder to foot. 

“Don’t you have to steer?” Teo asked playfully, already tilting his head up towards the airbender. 

“Do you want me to go steer?” Aang responded, capturing Teo’s chin between his fingers.

“Not really.” Teo did, after all, trust the air.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on tumblr  @praetorqueenreyna!


End file.
